June 16-17, 2012
Transformational Thought
As a father, my goal is to raise my daughters to be fulfilled, content, and independent (able to function on their own financially, psychologically, emotionally, and relationally). I also want them to achieve their God-given potential and purpose. The one skill I teach them so they can be victorious in all these goals is showing them how to be Godly decision-makers. To me, that is the “Promised Land living” Moses described in Deuteronomy 30. We would all agree this is a great goal for our kids. Thankfully, my teenagers also now realize for themselves that this is a great goal.
However, when they were younger (sometimes last week) they wanted too stay up late … have ice cream for dinner every night … sleep in all day in the summer … leave their chores for their mom to do … rush through their homework … take any short cut in life, that great goal of Godly decision-making, or at least a healthy strategy to achieve it, was the farthest thing from their minds.
There is no question that it is God’s will to bless you by sanctifying you. His word tells us, “This is the will of God, your sanctification ….” The real question remains … is it your will? If so, then is there regular proof? If your answer is no, why are you making your life so hard and dangerous?
Are you willing to let God do everything in you that has been made possible through the death and payment on the cross by Christ? Are you willing to let His life be exhibited through your flesh? Growing up, we yielded to the will of teachers, athletic coaches, acting coaches, music instructors, dance teachers. We endured struggles with homework, physical strain, long practice sessions, final exams, learning tough pieces, and enduring the frustration of incompetence and insecurity. But we stuck with it, trusted those leaders, and had faith that they willed something good and desirable for us. So their goal became our goal.
God is the greatest coach, teacher, or parent … ever. His will for you is grander and closer to you than you could ever imagine. So make it yours. But you have to trust by submitting to His coaching and parenting. If you aren’t submitting, you aren’t trusting Him. You’re definitely trusting something vastly inferior, like yourself or the world.
Today, examine whether you really want the best for your life. If you answered, “yes”, are you following God’s plan and using His instruction book as your guide? Or are you getting in His way, becoming your own worst enemy? Align your will with that of the One who created you. He knows you better than you know yourself. Don’t act like a child, selling out the chance for life’s great rewards in order to have comfort and self-centeredness now. WITHIN REACH can help you get out of God’s way and understand how to use His leading. Whether or not you want to live in the Promised Land is your decision, so choose well.
Prayer
Thank You, Father, for making it possible for Your will to be my will. Thank You for uniting me through Jesus Christ to You … for making me pure and holy … and freeing me from the death grip of sin. How liberating it is to know that there is nothing in this universe that can separate me from Your love. Help me absorb Your love, know how much You really care for me, and melt my resistance to Your will. Show me how to get out of Your way as You work on me and with me through Your Holy Spirit. I pray this in the name the one who always submitted to Your will, even above His own, Jesus Christ – and all God’s children say, AMEN!
The Truth
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5
God’s will is for you to be holy… 1 Thessalonians 4:3
The LORD your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, when you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, it is within your reach. Deuteronomy 30:9-11